You’ve got followers and post regularly, but ever wondered how popular you are on Twitter? An online tool that evaluates "tweets" can tell. Continue reading here
http://itmatters.com.ph/news.php?id=112409b

Friday, November 13, 2009

Updates on social media sites can be dangerous if workmates see them – and can erode the line between work and social life

Twitter users should exercise caution.

Yes, my boss follows me on Twitter. And it's no use denying that this makes a difference to what I tweet. For example, I always feel bad about not tweeting, because I report on digital media and a tacit part of my job description is to maintain an online presence. However, I don't tweet if I am in a bad mood or am simply too busy. On the other hand, we should examine where the line should be drawn for social media and our private lives.

Our after-work life is rapidly disappearing, and being replaced by a non-working life. It remains to be seen if increased transparency regarding our private lives will make employers more tolerant - or make employees better behaved. "The business use case in Twitter is turning out to be very important," Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said yesterday as the company announced the possibility of cross-posting tweets to the professional network LinkedIn. Fine. But careful with that.

Think twice about tweeting that you hate your new job, but are grateful for the fat paycheck. And you might want to consider changing your job if you want to express your sexuality but you are a teacher. Those people with a second, non-work-related, Facebook account or Twitter identity can do a lot anonymously, but yes, they have to manage their identities. And the London Underground worker who left his job after rude comments he made to an elderly passenger were circulated on the internet might struggle for sympathy. Continue reading here http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/nov/11/rules-if-boss-follows-you-on-twitter-etiquette

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

This is from the website spotcoolstuff. Ever expanding functionality companies are bringing to Twitter. Some hotels offer concierge services via Twitter. Some take-out restaurants allow customers to place orders via Twitter. And now at least one VoIP company, Jajah, is launching a service that places telephone calls via Twitter.
Here’s how Jajah’s Twitter calling works:

1) You sign up for a free Jajah account and input your Twitter username and your phone number (VoIP, landline and cell numbers all work).
———————
Visit my Twitter blog now http://twitterph.blogspot.com/
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2) The person you want to call must have a Jajah account with the same information. Also, you must each be following each other on Twitter.
3) You tweet “@call @_________”, with that blank filled with the Twitter username of whoever you want to call.
4) Your telephone will ring, your callee’s telephone will ring, and Jajah will connect your call.
The call is completely free and there’s no need download software or have any special equiptment. The catch—and isn’t there always a catch?—is that your call can be no longer than 2 minutes long. Also, because you are tweeting your call request you have to be okay with informing all of Twitterdom of who it is you are calling.
Given these limitations does Jajah’s Twitter calling service belong in the Cool But Ultimately Useless category?
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Maybe.
There are already multiple ways to place phone calls for free or nearly-free (such as Skype). With a tweet you can plan out your 140 characters but it isn’t always predictable whether you want your call to last longer than two minutes or not.
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On the other hand, there may well be people you don’t want to talk to for longer than two minutes. [Insert mother-in-law joke here]. Another advantage: Jajah keeps the phone number of all their users confidential, which might make their Twitter service idea for some form of phone speed dating or for issuing ransom demands.
Jajah http://www.jajah.com/
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As of September 2009 the Jajah Twitter calling service was in a beta testing mode. Any Jajah user can ask to take part by emailing twitter@jajah.com.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Twitter and LinkedIn have struck a deal for tweets to be shared on LinkedIn, boosting the efforts of both services to be a hub for professional conversation. Read the article here http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/tweets-are-coming-to-linkedin/?ref=technology

Twitter is adding what could become a powerful new source for news and things to do. The company is going to support location-based trends with a new application programming interface, so that users can learn about what others nearby are tweeting about. That could make mash-ups like the one pictured above from Trendsmap quite powerful. (Trendsmap shows the most buzzed about terms on Twitter fo different cities around the world.)

The one feature request that we’ve heard over and over, however, is “what’s going on where I am?”. To answer that, we wanted to give you all a heads up regarding the new “Trends API” that we’re launching. This API will open up trending information that is specific to a number of locations around the world.

Twitter’s using Yahoo!’s Where on Earth IDs (WOEIDs) to name locations, because the company’s markers are language-agnostic and stable. Based on the company’s documentation, it looks like the API will return ten trending terms for a given location

Monday, November 9, 2009

And, no, I don’t just mean the Twitter users who share too much information about their lives, social, medical or otherwise.

Simply put, there is way too much information on Twitter — lately, it defies navigation. In January, there were 2.4 million tweets a day, according to Alessio Signorini, a researcher at the University of Iowa. By October, he reports, there were 26 million tweets a day.
Why should we care about information overload at Twitter? Isn’t Twitter about the individual experiences — a Tweeter and her followers — not the totality of millions of Tweeters around the world?

Perhaps this is true for most users. But the promise of Twitter — the reason Google and Microsoft have paid to be able to search millions of Tweets — is that it gives the best approximation of the pulse of the world: How popular is the new iPhone? Did Kanye West make a spectacle of himself at an awards show? Or, more ominously, what is it like when there is a shooter loose on an Army post?

Until lately, the main way to make sense of an urgent outpouring of tweets on a particular subject was to use text searches: look for the phrase “Fort Hood,” for example, or maybe an agreed-upon label, “#fthood,” within tweets. Yet during events like the shootings on Thursday at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead, this method is useless. Hundreds of “relevant” tweets pop up every minute, most repeating the same news reports over and over again or expressing concern from far away.
Which is why a new feature that Twitter says it could unveil in the next few weeks — “geolocation” — holds such potential to make the Twitter rapids navigable.

The idea is to take advantage of global positioning systems on cellphones to allow Twitter users to include a precise location with each tweet. Users would be able, right off the bat, to limit their searches to tweets from a particular location.

“Proximity can be this proxy for relevance,” said Ryan Sarver, the director of the Twitter platform, who led a “fairly small team” of programmers who after a few months are close to completing the geolocation project. “We are about delivering the right information to the right people.”
Even now, before the geolocation feature has been released to developers, visitors to Twitter.com have been able to limit searches by location based on the profiles that Twitter users provide when they sign up.

That simple filter made a huge difference in what a visitor to Twitter’s search engine discovered about the Fort Hood shootings. After limiting searches to those from within 15 miles of Killeen, Tex., a town near the Army post, you easily find messages sent by soldiers describing what it is like to be on lockdown or worrying about their children at school on the post.

The tweets from one, RicoRossi, can suddenly leap to the top, even while Fort Hood remains locked down — “a soldier i treated here said he was waiting in line @ SRP when another soldier stood up and started shooting,” one early tweet read, using an acronym for the Soldiers Readiness Program, where the attacks occurred.

In response to questions from his Twitter followers, he quickly replied with “idont want 2 b 2 graphic so ill stop there, he was there ... it was like something out of a movie he said im paraphrasing of course.”

Another Twitter user, JKsTinkerbell76, described the scene at Scott and White Hospital in nearby Temple, Tex., during her lunch break (around midnight late Thursday): “Still on Lockdown. Police and Security everywhere.”

And DaTriggerMan, Killeen, Tex, tweeted Thursday afternoon, “We just got cell phone services back here on ft hood! And I am good thanks for all the concern!!!” And then, four minutes later, “what happen cuz I aint been in front of a tv? We had some shooters on post we good now tho!”

Improvements like geolocation have the potential to make the Internet suddenly relevant to society as it is lived, not just relevant to what happens online. Mr. Sarver imagines features like “local trending topics,” a list of subjects popular in a particular area; or searches for happy hour in a neighborhood of Dallas that will intelligently link tweets about happy hours to the place they were sent from.
Because GPS will provide the ability to become very “granular” with locations, you could mimic through Twitter the banter at the local diner or a barbershop, by limiting a search of tweets to a two-block radius.

There is also the fear of loss of privacy and loss of security as once-local chats become globally public. That is why Mr. Sarver said Twitter would require two “opt in” decisions — at the profile level and again through the application.

For the technological optimists, the cures for information overload, in essence, are better filters and greater context. The more you know about a message — who sent it and why — the better you understand it.

The open-source project Ushahidi, which takes its name from the Swahili word for “testimony,” was quick to understand this. The software allows text messages to be mapped by time and location. It was developed to track reports of ethnic violence in Kenya in 2008. Suddenly mere words can create a moving picture of where violence started and where it intensified.

More recently, through a program called stopstockouts.org, the Ushahidi software tracks a range of medicines for shortages across Africa.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Interface fixes and usability tweaks are clearly aimed at pulling Twitter subscribers from their slumber or away from third-party apps.

Twitter made its new retweet function available to a limited number of users on Thursday, as it tests the new feature before rolling it out across its entire network. Retweets are just one part of what looks like a larger push by the self-proclaimed "information network" to make Twitter.com just as usable as the multitude of free Twitter clients out there like Tweetdeck, HootSuite and Seesmic. In addition to Retweets, the company also announced on Thursday that it would start editing its trending topics to make the feature more relevant, and last month Twitter launched a Lists feature allowing users to organize their Twitter streams.

Retweets
Retweeting is just a fancy way of saying that one user has re-posted the message of another user. If you were following PC World on Twitter, for example, a typical retweet would look something like this: "PC World: RT @ianpaul trying out Twitter.com."

Twitter is aiming to improve retweets by highlighting the message creator as opposed to the user who is re-posting the message. So instead of seeing a tweet from the person you follow, the original tweet would show up in your Twitter stream with a small credit at the bottom to let you know who, among the people you follow, retweeted the message.

The new format will look something like this: "Ian Paul: trying out Twitter.com.--retweeted by @pcworld and three others." This is a great format since it will make it easier for you to discover other interesting people to follow based on what appears in your Twitter stream.

Curating Trending Topics and Lists
Trending topics allows you to see the ten most popular discussion topics on Twitter in real time. The problem is, this list can easily be overtaken by useless memes or pranks--remember the gorilla penis fiasco? Twitter wants to take a little more control over what can get onto its trending topics list by cutting out the noise and highlighting particularly useful or timely discussions. The company says you won't really notice anything at first, but it hopes to improve the relevance of this feature over time.
Another feature that recently became available to most users is Twitter Lists. This allows you to organize your incoming Tweets into categories like profession, subject matter, family members, and so on.

Twitter Wants You Back
While Twitter's new features like retweeting and the newly added lists feature are being made available to developers of third-party applications, Twitter's newest improvements also look like a serious effort to convince users to use Twitter.com instead.

Metrics firm ComScore consistently reports that about 20 million users visit Twitter every month. Add to that information from Tweet Stats (a third-party Twitter metrics site), which typically reports Twitter's Web traffic hovering around 30 percent of all Twitter usage, and you can see there's a huge base of regular Twitter users out there that never, or rarely, visit Twitter.com. If Twitter's future plans for monetization include increasing its Web traffic, it's not hard to see why the company has been so busy tweaking its own user interface in recent months. Read the original article here http://www.pcworld.com/printable/article/id,181588/printable.html

Last night, Amazon sent out emails to their Amazon Associates members touting the latest addition to the company's affiliate program: a new feature called "Share with Twitter." According to the email, participants can generate "tweetable" links to any Amazon product after first logging into their Associates account. By clicking on the "Share with Twitter" button from any Amazon product details page, members are delivered to the Twitter.com website. Here, a shortened link and a bit of auto-populated text are automatically filled in Twitter's "What are you doing?" text box. The included text can be edited to say whatever they want before posting or they can choose to just post as is. After updating Twitter, any person who clicks through on the link and makes a purchase will earn the participant referral fees payable through the Associates program.

Amazon Associates is Amazon's affiliate program whose original purpose was to help website owners generate links and banner advertisements which they could embed on their sites in order to generate additional income. The links could be text, images, or combinations of both while the banners were always full-color ads branded with Amazon.com's logo. For the most part, these sorts of advertisements are relatively easy to spot on participating blogs and websites. Save for the image links, which are just a picture of a product, everything else is clearly some sort of standard ad referring you to a particular product or service provided by Amazon.

The new Twitter links, however, are a whole new story. If an Amazon Associates member takes the time to re-write the text into their own words, there's virtually no way to know by looking at the post that the Twitter update is actually an ad.

Is Amazon Spamming Twitter?
In the past, several legitimate companies have diluted the Twitter stream with promotions and contests encouraging Twitter users to "tweet to win" so to speak, by pasting in some sort of marketing message into the "What are you doing?" box or by appending a promotional hashtag to their everyday messages. But unlike these company-run Twitter promotions, there's not a hashtag to use or any specific wording that has to be tweeted in order to participate in the Amazon Affiliate program. All anyone has to do is tweet links along with the message of their choosing.

Because Amazon's marketplace is extensive in terms of the products it sells, there's a wide variety of things which can be promoted. No matter what a Twitterer's particular interest is: music, politics, technology, etc., there's bound to be hundreds of things that could be mentioned in their Twitter stream without the posts appearing to be an ad. In fact, there's a good possibility that they would have been talking about these products anyway throughout the course of the day...they just couldn't have made any money off of them until now.

Hidden Advertisements
The problem with this sort of "hidden" advertising, though, is exactly that: it's hidden. This is the internet's version of "product placement" - subtle advertising in plain sight yet never clearly identified as such. Was your favorite TV star using a Macbook? Was he drinking a Coke? Already commonplace in Hollywood, these almost subliminal advertising messages permeate our consciousness every time we turn on the TV. Now that same sort of hidden ad will soon show up in the Twitter streams of your favorite tweeters.

Soon they'll start promoting a great book they just read, a DVD they liked, or one of a million other things pulled out of Amazon's vast inventory. None of it will sound out of place given the types of informal conversations that take place on Twitter every day. You won't even know that they're advertising to you until you click through on the link and find yourself on an Amazon.com webpage - and even then, you may not be sure. Was that a referral or were they genuinely just linking to the Amazon website to be helpful?

Will the FTC Step In?
Another question this raises, at least here in the U.S., is whether or not the FTC will get involved. Having recently taken steps to make sure that bloggers were properly disclosing freebies or payments received by companies whose products were being reviewed on their sites, one has to wonder if they'll now be tempted to monitor the undisclosed advertising that's about to explode on Twitter.

Amazon could have avoided the potential threat of government involvement (not to mention the accusations that they're "spamming Twitter") by generating their links using their own proprietary URL-shortening system, something like amzn.com or amz.com for example. That would clearly identify the tweets' purpose. But instead, they opted to make their links with the URL shortener bit.ly, the one that Twitter itself uses by default. This makes the Amazon links indistinguishable at a glance from any other shortened link posted to Twitter. There's no way to tell if a tweet is an ad unless the Twitter user left Amazon's auto-generated text in place. Of course, no one is going to use that text except the laziest of Twitter spammers - people you're probably already avoiding.

Tell Amazon What You Think with #AMZNSOT
Today, many Twitter users are coming out against this new type of Twitter-fueled advertising, registering their complaints via tweets marked with the #AMZNSOT hashtag, the official tag used to give Amazon feedback about the system. These users are already branding this new effort "spam," saying things like: "Amazon now gives you cash for spamming on Twitter? Oh, swell," as Twitter user TwitBin says. "Does this just mean more Twitter spam as people try to make money?" asks NickHerbert. But there are just as many Twitter users saying nice things about the new system too, calling it "cool," "awesome," "sweet," and even claiming it "rocks."

You can give Amazon your two cents as well by updating Twitter with your thoughts and including the #AMZNSOT hashtag along with your message.

Whether you think the new Amazon Twitter integration is good or bad, there's no doubt that it will be a major game changer for Twitter. As it blurs the lines between conversation and ads, people seem to think that Amazon has either created something of genius or has ruined Twitter as we know it. Few seem to be undecided when it comes to their feelings about this issue. The question is now: which side will end up being in the majority?

SAN FRANCISCO — There's a new race in the Internet search business and, like most races, it's about speed.

Start-ups including LeapFish, Factery and Aardvark hope to lap the field by supplementing conventional search results, such as what you'd find on Google, with instant access to social networks including Twitter.

"This is going to become mainstream very fast," says Sean Suchter, general manager of the search technology center at Microsoft. "Everybody in the world is going to expect that they can find out anything, anywhere, instantly."

Last month, Google and Microsoft's Bing signed deals that give them access to Twitter's public postings, called tweets.

Yahoo is working with start-up OneRiot and others to display real-time search results.
To keep users from being overwhelmed, firms sort results by their relevance to what you're searching for, timeliness and, in some cases, the expertise of the source, says Nick Halstead, CEO of Tweetmeme, the No. 2 real-time search site after Twitter.

Real-time searches are mostly for Web users who want to know "what's being tweeted, what people are talking about," says Danny Sullivan, editor of the blog Search Engine Land.

That can be important for people tracking unfolding news events. But that audience may be small.
"Most people don't have this burning need for immediate, precise results unless it's the Iran elections or Michael Jackson's death," says Greg Sterling, principal of Sterling Marketing Intelligence.
The new companies say that they offer more than speed. LeapFish, which launches this week, says it's the first site that lets consumers both contribute and search for information in audio and video as well as text.

Factery will launch a site in mid-November that enables users to pose questions to people in social networks who may give immediate answers.

"Old-fashioned search engines just don't work in this real-time (Web) world," says co-founder and President Paul Pedersen. "People are looking for recommendations from those who they know and trust."

Aardvark uses a similar strategy. It enables anyone on Facebook, Twitter or instant-messaging services to ask questions about any topic and get a live answer within minutes.
"Consider Aardvark your very own brain trust of experts," says Damon Horowitz, Aardvark's co-founder and chief technology officer.

The new services are confident that the market can support them. Search "is a huge driver of online traffic, shopping, content discovery," says David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at digital-marketing agency 360i. Read the complete original article here http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2009-11-03-real-time-search_N.htm

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

The guys behind Twitter thinks their service will become so mainstream that people will be willing to buy a gadget specific to just “tweeting”. That’s how TwitterPeekwas conceived.

This mobile device is a collaboration between Twitter Inc. and Peek Inc., thus the name. Imagine a Blackberry phone and service just for Twitter.

So what can it do? Well, it can do everything you can do on a desktop Twitter client (e.g. TweetDeck) but all embedded into a wireless device as shown above.

How much? The TwitterPeek sells for $99 with a $7.95 monthly fee or $199 with a lifetime of service.
That means it will be tied up with a telco. Don’t think this will be a hit in the Philippine where data charges are still expensive. The cheapest unlimited rate on Twitter is Php20/day or Php600/month using Globe Super Surf {via WSJ}. Read the original posting here with photos as well http://www.yugatech.com/blog/mobile/twitterpeek-a-gadget-dedicated-to-twitter/#more-10089

Read more

TwitterPeek: The Twitter-Only Gadget Destined for Extinction

The first-ever standalone Twitter device goes on sale this week. Before you consider buying a TwitterPeek, though, you may want to read this.

The company's selling point is that not everyone has a Web-enabled smartphone, and the TwitterPeek could be a more affordable way to keep connected with the Twitterverse. But is Twitter by itself reason enough to buy a $100 standalone device and pay a monthly access fee? Even if you don't want to cough up the extra $22 a month that could get you unlimited data on your $100 smartphone, there are still plenty of other more practical options.
But hey, maybe I'm missing the big picture here. Maybe we'll all soon be carrying around individual devices for every single service we need. Just think of the possibilities:

• The iRumor: Forget your other Internet-connected contraptions -- for the low price of $59.95 (plus $5.49 a month), this device will automatically check a dozen different Mac blogs to bring you the latest Apple-related rumors every hour!
• iRumor Plus: The expanded iRumor Plus doesn't stop with Apple. It pings TechCrunch at 30-minute intervals to collect every unsubstantiated tech rumor, Apple or otherwise, published on the Web.
• The FaceBook: Keep in touch anywhere with this book-like gadget that does nothing but show your Facebook news stream (and let you update your status with remarks about how cool your new FaceBook gadget is).
• The TwitTrend: An even more economical version of the TwitterPeek, the TwitTrend connects to Twitter but displays only trending topics such as #LoseMyNumber and #HesNotThatIntoYou.
• The Tap Tap Metallica Player: Why shell out the cash for an iPod Touch when you can buy Tap Tap Revenge: Metallica on its own dedicated device? (Note: Metallica may end up suing itself over this thing, so buy at your own risk.)

• The Windows Mobile phone: Get basic phone functionality without all the bells and whistles by picking up a Windows Mobile phone. You'll be able to make and receive calls and texts, even connect to the Internet and download exciting passable applications from the Windows Mobile Marketplace. You'll almost think you're using one of those popular smartphone devices everyone else has!
Wait a minute...that last one actually does exist. But still. Read the complete article here

Monday, November 2, 2009

I trusted this 3rd party application since when I registered my Twitter account last mid-September. And now, I'm still using it when I'm away from my lappy and whatsoever with my Globe and Sun numbers. :) And the good thing for this, you can not only send tweets via this application but you can receive @mentions and DMs too, again for FREE! (isip.ph doesn't support this free service.)

Receiving FREE @mentions and DMs comes with 50 credits/day (1 @mention/DM receive, 1 credit conducted). It has no expiry. When your credits turned to zero, @tweetitow will refill it with another 50 credits for the next day at around 7 AM. So yeah @tweetitow gives you power to reach your friends, love ones, fave artists and even your crush Twitter updates for F-R-E-E! :D

"How to receive updates?"

Sending/onand/followto their gateways (the three numbers above) are the two basic command keys to start receiving updates right on your mobile.

Here's the complete list of commands keys to received updates:

/on -> To go online and start receiving updates — mentions and DMs.

/off -> To go offline. This means you will stop receiving updates.

/credits -> To check how many credits you still have.

/follow @user1 @user2 @user3 up to 8 users -> To start receiving updates from the user you follow. At the start, you will only receive mentions and DMs updates. If you want to receive tweet updates from a particular twitter user, you need to activate receiving updates from them. Example format, /follow @tweetitow.

/followstats -> To get a list of the twitter users you activated to receive updates from your phone.

/hold -> Hold sms updates. Similar to the command /off except that the settings and user you activate to receive updates from the last session are keep.

/resume -> To resume your session, and receive updates again from your phone.

/whoami -> To verify what twitter account you registered to T2.

/give @user -> To give another @tweetitow registered user some of your credits. Giving is sharing is loving.

/whatsnew -> To retrieve the 5 recent updates (from the last 24 hours) from any of the people you follow (including those you did not turn on to receive updates from your phone). To receive another 5 recent updates, simply send /whatsnew again — the 5 older tweet updates will be sent to your phone.

/whatsnew @user -> To retrieve the 5 recent updates of a user from the last 24 hours. -> To start receiving updates from the user you follow. At the start, you will only receive mentions and DMs updates. If you want to receive tweet updates from a particular twitter user, you need to activate receiving updates from them. Example format, /follow @tweetitow.

/followstats -> To get a list of the twitter users you activated to receive updates from your phone.

/hold -> Hold sms updates. Similar to the command /off except that the settings and user you activate to receive updates from the last session are keep./resume -> To resume your session, and receive updates again from your phone.

/whoami -> To verify what twitter account you registered to T2.

/give @user -> To give another @tweetitow registered user some of your credits. Giving is sharing is loving.

/whatsnew -> To retrieve the 5 recent updates (from the last 24 hours) from any of the people you follow (including those you did not turn on to receive updates from your phone). To receive another 5 recent updates, simply send /whatsnew again — the 5 older tweet updates will be sent to your phone.

/whatsnew @user -> To retrieve the 5 recent updates of a user from the last 24 hours.

As of October 19th, @tweetitow community has gained 1,000 registered user and still counting! Its safe to use so no worries regarding to your Twitter credentials. from the blog
http://mindyour-ownlife.blogspot.com/2009/11/tweetitow-philippines-1-free-twitter.html

Thanks to the popularity of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, it's a given that malicious hackers will devise ways to exploit the sites' numerous users in order to infect their computers with malware. This unwanted software is designed to do a number of terrible things ranging from identity theft to turning computer into remote-controllable "zombie" machines.

Without sufficient anti-virus and malware protection programs installed, social networking users can easily become victims to these ever-evolving attacks. However, the best way to avoid becoming a victim yourself is to be aware of what's out there and what sorts of things you should avoid. Below are the best practices which you should use on Facebook and Twitter in order to keep yourself safe.

The Problem with Malicious Links
One of the most common vectors for attacks are malicious links posted either to Twitter or to your Facebook wall. In the past, such as with the malware known as Kooface, the troublesome links could be easily identified because they would often use a consistent phrase followed by a URL. For example, in August, Koobface was posting links that read "my home video :)" which was followed by a URL and then a random component on the end such as "HA-HA-HA!!", "W.O.W.", "WOW", "L.O.L.", "LOL", ";)" or "OMFG!!!"

Although the end piece changed from tweet to tweet, the message itself remained the same. However, security researcher Costin Raiu of Kaspersky Lab tells us that easy-to-identify messages are not as common anymore. Today, it's much harder to identify malicious links thanks to two newer techniques being used by hackers. Below those two newer methods are described in more detail as is the tried-and-true method of spreading malware via email.

Method 1: Hijacking Twitter's Trending Topics
The first technique, which really became popular in August of this year, involves hackers creating Twitter new accounts and then posting messages related to whatever trending, or "hot," topic was being heavily discussed on Twitter at that time. This would allow the post to be aggregated in Twitter search results where unsuspecting users would click on the included link. The text accompanying the link would be intriguing to those interested in the subject, enticing them to click through.

Method 2: Hijacking Legitimate Accounts
The second technique involves infiltrating legitimate accounts through phishing attempts and other methods so that the hacker essentially has control over a "real" account. After control has been established, if on Twitter, the hacker will then tweet out links that redirect users to malware-infected sites. Because the tweets come from an account that already has an established set of followers, those reading the tweets assume it's safe and don't hesitate to click the links.

After infecting the account of a Facebook user, malware often uses that particular person's account to spread, too. As with the malicious links on Twitter, because it appears that the links posted are from a trusted friend, other users don't realize that the posted link is harmful.

On Facebook, one of the most problematic malware programs is Koobface, a particular type of malicious software that sees 20 to 30 new variations per day. Despite the number of variants out there, Koobface's M.O. is relatively consistent: it tricks people into clicking links. These links appear on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, but also on MySpace, hi5, Bebo, Friendster, and others.

Method 3: Dangerous Email
A third method to encourage social networking users to click on infected links is the old but still effective technique of sending out spoofed email. Hackers can create email messages that appear to be sent from a social networking site. The messages prompt you to "update your account" or open an attachment containing your new password among other things.

How To Stay Safe
There are a number of best practices that you should follow in order to stay safe and avoid infection. They are as follows:

Don't assume a link is "safe" because it's from a friend: As noted above, your friend's account may be infected. You should never assume that a link is safe just because a friend tweeted it or posted it to your wall. Use your common sense. If it doesn't sound like something they would say, be wary, don't click. If you're unsure, try to contact them through another channel and see if the link is legit.

Don't assume Twitter links are safe because Twitter is now scanning for malware: In August, Twitter partnered with Google to use Google's Safe Browsing API, a technology that checks URLs against Google's blacklist. This prevents spammers from posting malicious URLs to Twitter, but it does NOT prevent them from posting shortened URLs which direct users to those same malicious sites. It's better than no protection at all, but it's not going to keep you entirely safe.

Don't Assume Bit.ly Links are Safe: Earlier this year, Twitter's default URL-shortening service Bit.ly, began warning users of malware. Bit.ly also uses Google's Safe Browsing API along with two other blacklists to identify malicious links. Although the service doesn't prevent users from posting these links, it will warn upon clicking that the site being linked to is infected. However, as Raiu tells us, this is not 100% effective either. Kaspersky has identified a number of malicious links which Bit.ly did not block. However, you can assume that Bit.ly is generally safer than the other URL-shortening services because it uses this technology and because the hackers are generally avoiding this service at the moment because of its built-in protection. But it is not completely safe - nothing ever is.
Use an up-to-date web browser: Kaspersky recommends using the latest version of your web browser and keeping it up-to-date with the necessary patches. That means Internet Explorer users should be on IE8 - and since this browser is attacked the most, it's critical that you make sure it stays updated as needed. Firefox is the second most attacked browser, but fortunately, it has a self-updating feature built in. Google Chrome is also good because it has a self-updating feature as well as another security feature that runs plugins in "sandboxes," or restricted environments. If an attacker was able to exploit the browser and run malicious code, it would be isolated to this sandbox and would not able to effect the entire machine. Opera and Safari are also good browsers and should be kept current, too.

Keep Windows up-to-date: As always, Windows users should make sure their systems are current with the latest patches from Microsoft. Automatic updates should be turned on.

Keep Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash up-to-date: At the moment, Adobe Reader and Flash are the two most targeted programs by hackers. A lot of malware specifically goes after known vulnerabilities within Adobe's software. In addition, a common method of attack, such as that used by Koobface, is to redirect a victim to a malware-infested site where the user is prompted to update their Flash player or Adobe Reader in order to see the website content. NEVER do this. Always go to Adobe's site on your own to download the latest version or update the software on your computer using its own built-in update mechanisms.

Don't assume you're safe because you use a Mac: While it's true that Mac users are less targeted than Windows users, they are not immune to malware, despite what those commercials may say. Although Apple did include some malware protection in their latest operating system, it only protects users from two trojans; you cannot count on it alone to protect you. There are a couple of hundred of trojans currently in the wild that specifically target Mac machines, according to Kaspersky. In fact, there may even be as many as a thousand, but researchers are unable to identify all of them because Mac users don't typically run anti-virus software which is how much of the data is collected. These days, when a user clicks an infected link, the malicious web page will now sometimes identify whether that user is coming from a Windows or Mac machine and then display the appropriate version of the trojan accordingly. A particular family of trojans known as "DNS Changer" trojans are the most common ones used to attack Mac machines. The only way to really be sure that you're protected against these malicious programs is to run anti-malware software on your Mac, but most Mac users won't do so, preferring to take their chances since their risk is lower.

Be wary of email messages from social networks: Because email addresses can be "spoofed" by hackers, you can't assume that an email from Facebook or Twitter is really from those the site it claims to be from. As always, you should never open attachments you were not expecting to receive and you should be wary of clicking on links - especially if you're being told to "update your account." If you do click on a link and are taken to a web page that asks you to log into the site, DON'T DO IT. It would be handing over your password to the hackers. Instead, you should always access the sites directly by typing in their URL in your browser or clicking a saved link in your Favorites.

It's Not Just a Matter of Common Sense Anymore
As the above best practices show, a lot of the things you can do to protect yourself from malware are the same as they have been in the past - keep your computer and browser up-to-date, don't open attachments, etc. However, malware is trickier to identify these days thanks to social networking sites. It now uses the trusted identities of your friends in order to lull its victims into a false sense of safety. You can no longer simply assume that because someone you know posted a link, it's automatically safe. You can't even assume that the networks themselves are safe, either. They're not always scanned for malware-laden links, and when they are, such as is the case with Twitter, it's not a 100% effective method.

At the 140conf conference in LA, Jeff Pulver asked me to think about the future of Twitter and even though I obviously have no crystal ball, I took some risks and here you go, I gathered my predictions here, in the form of "tweet slides" so you might want to watch the video too.

It will reach masses of people
They won’t use the same tools as we do
It will not be only about Twitter
-status updates will be open across social software
-all social software will have status updates
-Facebook has 40+ million updates a day
Twitter will still be dominant in status updates
it's the motherboard on which we plug in
We will laugh thinking we were updating them all manually
The social graph will also open up
Twitter will be big to get an idea of a person or a brand reputation
not by number of followers but mostly influence with retweeting and lists
lets you think like that person thinks
Twitter will replace SMS for millions of people
-it is portable and archives across devices
-you don’t need to remember a phone number
-you are not tied to a mobile operator
Twitter might replace Chat for many people, too
-a DM exchange is very similar to a private chat
-Twitter lists are very similar to a public chat room
Location will be one of the most widespread status update
Private updates will be bigger than public updates (my kids say...)
Public ecommerce status updates won’t work
buying things is very intimate
Live reviews of any place and product will deeply influence it though
Promos by brands and retailers will have big success for last minute deals
Talking to shops and restaurants via Twitter will become standard
and will get opt in coupons as we enter a shop, based on location
Web will be a fraction of mobile use
Dating over Status updates won’t be big
Twitter won’t display ads in your main feed
Users will get too angry at unsolicited ads
Other revenue opportunities such as pro accounts for businesses will be enough
There will be more devices publishing updates than humans
wifi scale, planes, trains, cars all posting updates
Corporations will have entire teams devoted to Twitter and status updates
Hyperlocal news sites with Twitter geotagging feature
(thanks, @stevefarnworth)
Google and Bing will be the dominant ways to search Twitter
Google will have its own Twitter and won’t acquire Twitter
There will be a few alternatives for niche search such as brand monitoring
Internal Enterprise Twitter like services will become standard
Vertical Twitter apps will start to appear
Stocktweets is the first one
Twitter will remain mostly used outside of Twitter.com
Language will evolve adapting to 140char, concise, ignore rules

spam will grow and become a tough to solve issue
There will be less and less bullshit in public events and in general
It will always be about you, not the tools From the original source here http://www.loiclemeur.com/english/2009/11/30-predictions-for-the-future-of-twitter.html